The Secretary of Education seeks to establish a new regulation 14 DE Admin. Code 624 School District/Charter School Policy Prohibiting Cyberbullying. This regulation is a result of Senate Bill 193 of the 146th General Assembly, which requires that the Delaware Department of Education shall collaborate with the Delaware Department of Justice to develop a model cyberbullying policy. This legislation and this subsequent regulation expands upon the policy found in 14 Del.C. §4112D and also explicitly prohibits cyberbullying by students directed at other students. Incidents of cyberbullying shall be treated by each school district and charter school in the same manner as incidents of bullying, and notice of each school district and charter school’s policy against cyberbullying shall be provided to students, staff, and faculty in the same manner as notice of the school district and charter school’s policy against bullying. The proposed regulation was published in the October Register of Regulations. Section 2.1 and 2.4 of the regulation were amended subsequent to public comments received.

Notice of the revised proposed regulation was published in the News Journal and the Delaware State News on January 5, 2013, in the form hereto attached as Exhibit “A”. Comments were received from Governor’s Advisory Council for Exceptional Citizens and the State Council for Persons with Disabilities and from the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware. After considering the comments, the Department, working with the Attorney General’s Office, decided not to further revise the proposed regulation.

For the foregoing reasons, the Secretary concludes that it is appropriate to establish 14 DE Admin. Code 624 School District/Charter School Policy Prohibiting Cyberbullying. Therefore, pursuant to 14 Del.C. §122, 14 DE Admin. Code 624 School District/Charter School Policy Prohibiting Cyberbullying attached hereto as Exhibit “B” is hereby established. Pursuant to the provision of 14 Del.C. §122(e), 14 DE Admin. Code 624 School District/Charter School Policy Prohibiting Cyberbullying hereby established shall be in effect for a period of five years from the effective date of this order as set forth in Section V. below.

The text of 14 DE Admin. Code 624 School District/Charter School Policy Prohibiting Cyberbullying established hereby shall be in the form attached hereto as Exhibit “B”, and said regulation shall be cited as 14 DE Admin. Code 624 School District/Charter School Policy Prohibiting Cyberbullying in the Administrative Code of Regulations for the Department of Education.

In addition to the policy prohibiting bullying put in place by school districts and charter schools pursuant to 14 Del.C. §4112D(b)(2), each school district and charter school shall also prohibit cyberbullying (as defined herein) by students directed at other students. Incidents of cyberbullying shall be treated by each school district and charter school in the same manner as incidents of bullying, and notice of each school district's and charter school's policy against cyberbullying shall be provided to students, staff, and faculty in the same manner as notice of the school district's and charter school's policy against bullying.